‏ Jeremiah 14

Yahweh Will Not Listen to Their Cry

1That which came as the word of Yahweh to Jeremiah in regard to the drought:

2“Judah mourns,
And her gates languish;
They sit on the ground in mourning,
And the outcry of Jerusalem has gone up.
3“Their mighty ones have sent their ▼

▼Lit little ones

underlings for water;
They have come to the trenches and found no water.
They have returned with their vessels empty;
They have been put to shame and dishonored,
And they cover their heads.
4“Because the ground is ▼

▼Cracked

dismayed,
For there has been no rain on the land,
The farmers have been put to shame;
They have covered their heads.
5“For even the doe in the field has given birth only to forsake her young
Because there is no grass.
6“The wild donkeys stand on the bare heights;
They pant for air like jackals;
Their eyes fail
For there is no vegetation.
7“Although our iniquities answer against us,
O Yahweh, act for Your name’s sake!
Truly our acts of faithlessness have been many;
We have sinned against You.
8“O Hope of Israel,
Its Savior in time of distress,
Why are You like a sojourner in the land
Or like a traveler who has pitched his tent to lodge for the night?
9“Why are You like a man confused,
Like a mighty man who cannot save?
Yet You are in our midst, O Yahweh,
And we are called by Your name;
Do not leave us!”
10Thus says Yahweh to this people, “Even so they have loved to wander; they have not kept their feet in check. Therefore Yahweh does not accept them; now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins.” 11So Yahweh said to me, “Do not pray for the good of this people. 12When they fast, I am not going to listen to their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I am not going to accept them. Rather I am going to make an end of them by the sword, famine, and pestilence.”

Lying Prophets

13But, “Ah, Lord Yahweh!” I said, “Behold, the prophets are saying to them, ‘You will not see the sword nor will you have famine, but I will give you true peace in this place.’ ” 14Then Yahweh said to me, “The prophets are prophesying lies in My name. I have neither sent them nor commanded them nor spoken to them; they are prophesying to you a vision of lies, divination, futility, and the deception of their own hearts. 15Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the prophets who are prophesying in My name, although it was not I who sent them—yet they keep saying, ‘There will be no sword or famine in this land’—by that sword and famine those prophets shall ▼

▼Lit be finished

meet their end! 16The people also to whom they are prophesying will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and there will be no one to bury them—neither them, nor their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters—for I will pour out their own evil on them.

17“And you will say this word to them,
‘Let my eyes flow down with tears night and day,
And let them not cease,
For the virgin daughter of my people has been shattered with a mighty shattering,
With a sorely sick wound.
18‘If I go out to the field,
Behold, those ▼

▼Lit pierced

slain with the sword!
Or if I enter the city,
Behold, diseases of famine!
For both prophet and priest
Have gone around as merchants in the land that they do not know.’ ”
19Have You completely rejected Judah?
Or ▼

▼Lit has Your soul

have You loathed Zion?
Why have You stricken us so that there is no healing for us?
We hoped for peace, but there was no good;
And for a time of healing, but behold, terror!
20We know our wickedness, O Yahweh,
The iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against You.
21Do not ▼

▼Or spurn

despise us, for Your own name’s sake;
Do not disgrace the throne of Your glory;
Remember and do not break Your covenant with us.
22Are there any among the ▼

▼Lit vanities

idols of the nations who give rain?
Or can the heavens give showers?
Is it not You, O Yahweh our God?
Therefore we ▼

▼Or wait for

hope in You,
For You are the one who has done all these things.